California’s porn industry up in arms

Adult film actress Ela Darling says the bill requiring actors to wear condoms on set will wreck her career. Photo: Bloomberg
AFR

by
Michael B Marois

Sacramento Ela Darling quit her job as a reference librarian south of Boston three years ago for a fresh start in Los Angeles, starring in such movies as ­Lesbian Slumber Party. Her new career, she says, is under threat from California legislature which may soon require porn actors to wear condoms and other protective gear. The adult film industry, which says it employs 10,000 people in the state, adding more than $US1 billion to the local economy, is threatening to move production out of California if the bill becomes law.

“I love my work and I love the people that I work with," 26-year-old Darling said. “It feels like they are punishing porn for having the audacity to make porn. But it takes more than a porn star to make a porno. It’s not just the porn stars that are going to suffer from this. It’s a lot of people, people with families."

It’s a business that by some accounts produces 11,000 films a year, 90 per cent shot in California by 200 production companies. Golden State porn generates $US9 billion to $US13 billion a year in gross revenue nationwide.

Pornographers say the condom rule violates their First Amendment rights to express themselves and would destroy the aesthetics of the industry. Proponents argue the law is needed to protect workers who suffer a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases than legal prostitutes in Nevada.

Porn mogul and publisher of Hustler magazine
Larry Flynt
says all the latex will wreck the mood. “People don’t want to see adult films where people are wearing condoms," he said.

Safety in the workplace

Public-health advocates such as the
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
, the sponsor of the bill, have long pushed for tougher statewide workplace safety regulations in the adult film industry. The group points to HIV scares in the past three decades, including one in 2004 that left four people infected after engaging in on-set unprotected sex.

The new bill mirrors a ballot measure that voters in Los Angeles County approved in 2012 requiring condoms for sex acts in adult films.

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Before passage of that measure, many in the business said they would shoot outside LA rather than comply.
Paul Audley
, president of Film LA, which issues permits for movies in the city, says adult film studios have applied for two this year. Typically the agency receives 450 to 500 requests a year.

“We are hearing from neighbouring counties and even other states that the industry is filming there and they are getting complaints."